This conference is organized by the Portuguese Association for Cancer Research (ASPIC), the Research Center of IPO-Lisboa Francisco Gentil and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Auditorium IPO-Lisboa Francisco Gentil, 12:00-13:30, May 12, 2015

Alberto Cambrosio:

McGill University, Canada

Alberto Cambrosio is a sociologist of biomedicine at McGill University. He earned his PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Montréal. He holds a bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Basel, Switzerland, and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University. He has been a guest professor at the Center for the Sociology of Organizations in Paris, France.

Professor Cambrosio's area of expertise lies at the crossroads of medical sociology and the sociology of science and technology. His work focuses on the “material culture” of biomedical practices, in particular on the study of the application of modern biological techniques to the diagnosis and the therapy of cancer, and the comparative (North-America - Europe) development of cancer clinical trials. His most recent work centers on translational research in cancer genomics.

In 2005, Alberto Cambrosio received the Ludwig Fleck Prize from the Society for Social Studies of Science for his book «Biomedical Platforms», co-authored with historian Peter Keating.

His most recent book («Cancer on Trial: Oncology as a New Style of Practice», in press, co-authored with Peter Keating) argues that, contrary to common assumptions, clinical trials do not boil down to mere “technology” or a few methodological principles, rather, they are an institution that corresponds to a profound transformation of biomedical activities. They rise to the level of a “new style of practice”, insofar as they generate novel, distinctive ways of producing and assessing medical knowledge. As such, they signal a collective turn in medical research (via large-scale networks of clinical researchers) that reorders the relations between private and public institutions, establishes new interfaces between research laboratories and clinical settings (and, most recently, biotech companies) and redefines the relation between patients and medical practitioners.